Housing Must Make Room For Kids

Law Ends Adult-only Living, Spares Seniors

February 26, 1989|By Mildred Graham of The Sentinel Staff

Probably no other state in the nation enjoys Florida's reputation as a haven for retirees. So when a federal anti-discrimination law was passed last year making it illegal to refuse housing to families with children, Florida seniors, like those across the country, cried foul.

Prohibiting discrimination against families with children is perhaps the broadest change in the new law and the one that has created the most uncertainty nationwide.

But in Florida, the child-free lifestyle and age restrictions have become so treasured that in several cases seniors or senior developments have gone to court to preserve it. And in several instances, children have been forced to leave condos and mobile home parks.

''It's not discrimination. It's a question of peace and quiet in our twilight years,'' said Dan Seitman, a resident of Williamsburg, a large all-adult development south of Orlando.

On the other side are parents who, advocates say, have been turned away from an increasing amount of housing in the last 20 years.

The Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 is challenging those trends.

Although the new law exempts certain kinds of senior developments, many older residents still are worried that unless their communities resemble convalescent homes, they will not qualify and be forced to accept children.

And many younger adults - those middle aged and in the yuppie group - are resigned that their child-free lifestyle is doomed because the law includes no exemption for them. In fact, by making it illegal to refuse to rent or sell housing to families with children, the law bans all-adult developments.

Thus the ''Adult Community'' signs and telephone book and newspaper advertisements will become history when the law - which also bans discrimination against the handicapped and strengthens enforcement - takes effect March 12.

Even separate family and adult sections in the same complex will be illegal under the new law, just as separate black and white sections are illegal.

But some housing analysts and federal housing officials say they don't expect families with children to flood the formerly all-adult apartments, condominiums, mobile home parks and single-family home communities.

''I'm not sure you're going to see a dramatic change,'' said Dorothy Stucke, director of legislation for the National Apartment Association. ''The most tenant movement is going to be among the elderly moving to places that qualify for the exemptions.''

Officials with the Department of Housing and Urban Development predict that many senior communities will qualify for one of the three exemptions.

A development will be exempt:

- If it is a state or federal program for seniors;

- If it is occupied 100 percent by persons age 62 or older;

- Or if 80 percent of the housing units are occupied by at least one person age 55 or older. (To qualify for the age 55 and over exemption, communities also must provide ''significant'' senior services and facilities such as sewing classes, blood pressure checkups and recreation rooms.)

Seitman, who is immediate past president of the all-adult Williamsburg Homeowner Association, a development of 5,000 people south of Orlando, said the group has been counting residents, amending covenants and preparing other documents to make sure Williamsburg qualifies for the age 55 exemption.

Not meeting the exemption ''would mean a complete change of our lifestyle and we will fight that tooth and nail,'' Seitman said.

Other senior communities also are scrambling to document their exemption status by March 12. Many senior associations have complained that they can't meet the deadline, but HUD has recommended that they at least begin the process.

Meanwhile, child advocates are praising the law that they say begins to address the serious age discrimination and housing shortage problems that affect families with children.

''It at least provides greater access to families with children,'' said Joe Morales, staff attorney for the National Center for Youth Law, a San Francisco agency that lobbied for the law.

Morales said the nation's shortage of housing for parents and their offspring began developing about 20 years ago when the number of households began to increase faster than the population. That put pressure on the housing market to build more housing, but as the number of childless couples increased, developers and builders began catering to the demand for adult housing, he said.

A national study conducted by HUD in 1980 found that 25 percent of the rental units surveyed did not allow children and another 50 percent had some kind of age restriction for children. In addition, a growing number of other kinds of developments, from condominiums to single-family subdivisions, may have limitations on children in their covenants or deed restrictions.